Was the American Revolution inevitable free essay sample

The British had treated colonists unfairly through the policy of salutary neglect -which was their way of keeping them under control by avoiding strict law enforcement (a positive outcome of salutary neglect was that it established roots of democracy in the American people because they became accustomed to governing homeless), taxation without representation, mercantilism- when a mother country uses its colonies for their resources, and boundary lines concerning their settlements.The colonists felt abused because Britain used them for their tax money and resources when they should have been encouraging the colonists thrive in America. All of this was incentive for the colonists to revolt against oppressive Britain and ultimately win their freedom. The British mistreated and took advantage of the colonies. They determined where they could or could not settle, placed unfair taxes on them, and used unnecessary Orca to implement authority. After the French and Indian war, the British established the proclamation of 1763 (document 1. We will write a custom essay sample on Was the American Revolution inevitable? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Under this proclamation, colonists could not settle west of the Appalachian Mountains. This angered them because not only did they just fight the war to gain control of that land, but the British went behind their backs and made this proclamation to avoid conflict with the Native Americans without consulting the colonists. The British also unjustly taxed the colonists for war reparations as demonstrated by document 3. The sugar act of 1764 allowed British navy o search vessels and authenticate cargo to make sure that the proper taxes were paid.This angered planters and ship captains who avoided paying correct duty fees. The stamp act of 1765 put a tax on legal documents, newspapers, and playing cards. This angered higher class colonists and the merchants pressure the government to nullify the law in 1766. The Townsend act in 1 767, taxed popular imports such as tea, lead, paper, and glass. This caused a boycott by the colonists led by John Hancock, the richest man in Massachusetts who made his money by smuggling items past British tax collectors.The intolerable acts in 1 774 put into action martial law (law enforced by the military), closed Boston Harbor in response to the Boston Tea Party, and it expanded the quartering act in which colonists had to put up British soldiers in their home with their own beds and food without anything in return. This led to the battles of Lexington and Concord. Another event that added to the disliking of the Americans towards the British was the Boston Massacre. On March 5th, 1770, colonists were taunting a group Of British soldiers because they felt that the British didnt have a purpose there.They started throwing snowballs and rocks at the soldiers and in turn, the soldiers opened fire into an unarmed crowd, killing 5 colonists. This event is portrayed by Paul Revere in document 4. The American Revolution was inevitable because the British were being unfair to the colonists and were not listening to what they had to say, forcing them to take military action. The British were not listening to the colonists and making their lives miserable. In turn, the colonists boycotted British goods and attempted to form a more democratic system.Document 5 is an illustration of the Boston Tea Party here colonists dressed up as Native Americans, boarded ships carrying tea and dumped one million dollars worth of tea into Boston Harbor. This was in response to Britain giving the monopoly of tea sales to the East India Company without consulting the colonists first; this resulted in the intolerable acts. Document 6 depicts colonists tarring and feathering a British tax collector. They were doing this because they were agitated by all the new taxes and they took their anger out on the tax collectors.Document 7 is an excerpt from the sons of liberty which states that anybody in possession of or aught hiding tea while it was still being taxed by the British, was an enemy to the colonies and would be shunned from society. Document 8 is from the First Continental Congress and explains everything the British are doing wrong or unfairly. For example, the colonists say that Britain should repeal all the acts that raise taxes so much, complaints regarding the lack of trial by jury, and the seizure of ships without being allowed to defend their property.All of these documents express the colonists distaste for the British and precautionary actions. Those who had neutral feelings towards the British may have been swayed by Thomas Pains Common Sense. This 50 page pamphlet combined both logical and emotional arguments as to why colonists should become patriots and fight against the British. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1 776, this document outlines all the things that the British did wrong and why America wanted its independence. The British obviously did not react well to this document and sent in troops to put the colonists back in their place.This was the start of the inevitable American Revolution. In conclusion, while no one event can be blamed for the start of the American Revolution, the colonists had plenty reason to go up against the British. They were being treated poorly, taxed unfairly, and their cries for help were being ignored. The only things Britain did for its colonies were take their tax money and their resources. Britains hard headed ways were obscure and wrong, they treated colonists like they werent deserving of basic human rights and refused to help or listen to their grievances. This is what made the American Revolution inevitable. Was the American Revolution Inevitable free essay sample Even with both the English and the Americans willing to compromise and make deals, it would have been very hard to prevent the War for independence. The American enlightenment, however, could have been stopped. A large majority of Americans wanted independence from England mainly because of the way they were being ruled. Of the Americans that wanted to break away were from many backgrounds, they came from all over the social ladder and from all over the world. If they didn’t all come together to be equal around each other then the War for Independence still would have happened, but the success and growth during and after the war would have never happened. It was never a sure thing whether or not the people would come together to move the American Revolution forward. The American War for Independence was unstoppable, the colonists who wanted to break away from England have gradually increased in numbers over the years, starting from the French and Indian War. We will write a custom essay sample on Was the American Revolution Inevitable? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page After the war was over and the British had won, they had over ? 45 million in debt from that war. George Grenville, the chief minister of England at the time, decided to put more taxes on the colonists back in America to help lessen the bind of the debt while putting on the colonists to pay off. Grenville kept adding more acts to make more money off of the colonists, first came the Sugar Act of 1764, which put a tax on French imported molasses and put other products on a list that says that these commodities can only be sent to England. This act lessened the income of merchants while still charging for imported goods. Next in 1751, came the Currency Act, which forbade New England colonies to issue paper money as legal tender. This was a tough act for the colonists because in the hard economy the country was already in, it further constricted trade in this region. At this point, some colonists began to see Parliament as a violator of their colonial rights. Some colonial leaders were even unsure where Parliaments rule started and stopped. The next big thing that set off an explosion of displeasure was the Stamp Act, which became effective in November of 1765. The Stamp Act further increased the duties on almost any printed material. The amount of mass defiance and rioting, especially in the major cities, that followed shocked the British government, they have never seen this amount or scale of discontent before with their subjects in America. As time went on, so did the riots, mostly in New York, Boston, and Newport, Rhode Island. Finally in March 1766, after a long debate, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act only to pass the Declaration Act, which stated that Parliament could enact laws for the colonies in all cases. Only now most Americans began to realize the power parliament had over controlling their basic rights. England further angered the colonists in June of 1772, when they announced that instead of having a legislature put into place by them, England would pay the governors and judges. Even though it would save the colonists money, they had the mindset of if the judges were paid by England, then they would obey them and what they said. In response, Boston created a Committee of Correspondence to win the sympathy of other colonies, by the end of 1773, all but 3 colonies had Committees of Correspondence. The final step before revolution started was taken in 1773 when the Parliament passed the Tea Act, which allowed the East India Company to ship tea directly to North America with a tax to the colonists, but the merchants who competed with the company announced this as monopoly and said there would be more to come. Finally, on the night December 16th, 1773 in Boston, a group of colonists snuck on to the East India Company’s ships and dumped ? 10,000 worth of their tea into the harbor, this would later be called the Boston Tea Party. This act showed England that the arguments were no longer about taxes, but about their control over the colonies. After the tea party, in May 1774, Parliament passed the Intolerable acts which closed the port of Boston to all ships until the lost tea was paid for, this call fell on deaf ears for something else was happening. In September 1774, 55 delegates from all colonies except Georgia met at Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia, they would be called the Continental Congress. They met not to discuss the war that many thought was unavoidable but about overcoming their differences. At this point, the American War for independence was inevitable. Although the war for independence was defiantly on its way, the American revolution was still unclear if it would be successful. No one was very similar to each other who was involved in the Revolution, they came from every part of the social structure and they all had different ideas. That’s why the Continental Congress gathered to talk about solving their pressing differences rather than war. Over time, colonists created a new political ideology that would greatly help the problem with all the differences. The ideology would later be called revolutionary republicanism, it was were all the colonists most important interests and experiences were connected. Revolutionary Republicanism is very important because it is a form of egalitarianism, which is an ideology where there are no inequalities between the people and everything is a fair chance. This was very important because if some of the ideas where not thought of as equal to other ideas based on what social class the person’s idea came from, most likely, the colonists would have stayed separate and not joined to create a strong revolution. That is why the American Revolution was not an inevitable thing to happen, because the colonists had so many differences they had to put aside before they could join and create a something that would help the success of the war for independence. The evidence shows that even if both sides were more willing to compromise, it would have been very hard to prevent war from breaking out. The American enlightenment, however, could have been stopped. If there were some major differences that were solved, or everything wasn’t thought of as equal, then the revolution might not have been as strong as it was, or if it even kept going.